A southern white rhino gave birth to a male baby conceived by artificial insemination at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park on Sunday.
The birth took about 30 minutes. Both mother and calf are doing well. Zoo officials have not had a chance to weigh the newborn and it does not yet have a name.
The calf is the first baby rhino born using artificial insemination at the San Diego Zoo facility.
The mom, Victoria, carried her baby for more than 490 days.
Victoria is one of six southern white rhinos that could become surrogate moms for the critically endangered northern white rhinos.
Historic rhino birth at San Diego Zoo Safari Park. The calf is a product of artificial insemination, and the birth is a key step on the path to allowing southern white rhinos to be surrogates for critically endangered northern white rhinos. pic.twitter.com/eCCVpN3DXn
— Erik Anderson (@KPBSErik) July 29, 2019
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There are only two of them left alive. Both are female and beyond breeding age.
Zoo officials are working to develop artificial insemination and embryo implantation techniques so they can put a northern white embryo into a southern white female.
Zoo researchers have access to frozen northern white cells that they hope to turn into eggs and sperm.
Meanwhile, there’s another southern white rhino at the safari park who was artificially inseminated. She is due around September.
